Issues

Summary: In this Review, we describe calcium-dependent mechanisms regulating early neurodevelopmental events in the cortex and provide evidence for calcium deregulation as a convergence point in the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders.

Highlighted Article: A regulatory axis integrating ERK, ZFP57, DNA and H3K9 methylation underlies the transition of Nanog expression from heterogeneous and dynamic to irreversibly silenced, enabling differentiation commitment and primitive endoderm specification.

Highlighted Article: The Drosophila CTIP1/2 (Bcl11a/b) homologue chronophage regulates the temporal cascade and neural stem cell competence in the embryonic central nervous system.

Summary: Fetal hematopoiesis includes the differentiation and maintenance of erythroid-myeloid progenitors and hematopoietic stem cells. The splicing factor dhx38 governs both processes by regulating the splicing of cell cycle genes.

Highlighted Article: Loss of TMEM132A severely impairs lateral migration of the paraxial mesoderm in the posterior trunk, leading to failure of caudal neural tube closure and contributing to spina bifida.

Summary: Wnt/β-catenin signaling is active in central nervous system (CNS) mural cells and regulates Lama2 deposition in the vascular basement membrane, promoting neurovascular unit and blood-CNS barrier maturation.

Summary: The redundant but distinct roles of ERECTA-family receptors in stomatal development are ensured by the molecular chaperone complexes that preferentially maintain protein abundance and proper subcellular dynamics.

Summary: The genes activated by PTL were identified in Arabidopsis, among which UFO likely plays an important role in petal initiation, suggesting a molecular mechanism in which PTL indirectly regulates the beginning of petal development.

Summary: FGFR1 and FGFR2 act in the undifferentiated mesenchyme of the early ureter as a sink for FGF ligands to prevent overactivation of epithelial FGFR2 signaling, ensuring normal patterning and differentiation of mesenchymal cells.

Highlighted Article: Maternal Wnt11b regulates microtubule dynamics during cortical rotation.

Summary: Conditional inactivation of focal adhesion kinase in the developing pancreas reveals its role in controlling the timing of pancreatic lineage commitment and/or differentiation by preventing endothelial recruitment to the embryonic epithelium.

Summary: The temporal control of Schwann cell mitotic exit is an essential step that mediates laminin expression in order to drive radial sorting and peripheral myelination.

Highlighted Article: tRNA synthetase deficiency leads to unfolded protein responses and neuronal apoptosis via Perk. Nrf2 is a pivotal downstream executor via targeting P53. tRNA synthetase controls neurogenesis via the Perk–Nrf2–P53 axis.

Summary: Rabbit preimplantation embryos share characteristics with human and monkey embryos with respect to the timing of early lineage segregation and expression of marker genes for naive and primed pluripotency.